Behavioural Insights Projects

The study explores consumers’ understanding of the individual elements of the energy label and how the label design influences consumer choice. To this end, the study implemented two behavioural experiments to measure cognitive and behavioural responses to various label elements.

Institution: European Commission

Team: JRC Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights

30% of the requests CNAM (Primary health care institution in France) receives by phone or email could be made and treated online. In order to encourage use of online services, the CNAM solicited help from the DITP. This dematerialization would benefit the user by easing the access to services, to the administration workers by improving their work conditions and to the institutions through gains in efficience. We chose to target a precise procedure: ordering a Carte Vitale (Health Care card) for…

Institution: Direction Interministérielle de la Transformation Publique (DITP)

Team: Equipe Sciences Comportementales

Normative messages have been shown to increase intention to do physical activity. Positive normative message say that most people like you are physically active. Negative normative message say that most people like you are NOT physically active. The study traces how “positive” and “negative” normative messages influence physical activity intention.

Institution: European Commission

Team: JRC Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia collaborated with the World Bank on a holistic review of the country's tax system, an input to the design of a new, improved tax strategy. The State Revenue Service (SRS), Latvia's tax authority, worked with the Mind, Behavior, and Development (eMBeD) Unit at the World Bank to pilot a field experiment to increase tax compliance. The experiment involved sending preemptive, behaviorally-informed email messages to taxpayers with a share of income…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

Surveys give people an opportunity to be heard and provide government with vital information about the impact of its services. BETA partnered with Department of Social Services (DSS) to encourage more people to complete the Data Exchange survey. Data Exchange is new report platform developed by DSS to enable the collection of meaningful data about service delivery outcomes from organisations receiving community grants. As part of this platform, a client survey enables clients to self-report on…

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

Team: Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA)

Rijkswaterstaat conducted a behavioural campaign aimed at urging drivers on the N36 provincial road in Overijssel to keep a safe distance, to be calm and relaxed while driving and to pay attention to the road. The campaign achieved a reduction in distractions, less irritation and an overall improved driving experience. Why this experiment was conducted: many serious accidents on N36 The spotlight has been on the N36 between Hardenberg/Ommen and Almelo/ Wierden for some time due to the frequent,…

Institution: Rijkswaterstaat (Netherlands Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management)

The Australian Government has a range of programs available to assist those experiencing drought. But despite help being available, many do not reach out. The Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) worked with the Joint Agency Drought Taskforce to research the barriers preventing people from seeking help. We sought to: • understand the most effective forms of communication about available forms of assistance, and incentives to take up assistance; and • understand the…

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

Team: Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA)

Encouraging a more circular economy to lessen the impacts of climate change will require behavioural changes from Canadians. In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), we have launched a program of research to help meet some of Canada’s recycling targets—90% collection rate for plastic beverage containers, and these containers to have 50% recycled plastic content by 2030. This research will use insights and approaches from behavioural science to understand and increase…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

The project’s goal is to bridge the gap between individuals’ green intentions and behaviors by simplifying self-regulating behavioral tools such as information processing, implementation intentions, and prioritizing. Through structured workshops, online courses and social media content Ecofriendly Choices creates a link between environmental ideas and actual everyday choices, helping individuals overcome information overload, action paralysis and procrastination in ecofriendly consumption…

Institution: Other

This project leverages an online survey experiment among federal employees involved in the process of translating information and evidence about a program into actionable policies and programs. The experiment’s primary aim is to test ways of presenting information to improve sensitivity to impact-relevant information about a program. The impact-relevant features tested are: the number of people impacted, the intermediate or final outcomes and the persistence of effects. In addition, the…

Institution: General Services Administration (GSA)

Team: Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES)